Tech: how to remove unwanted female guests from car: PETA warning

Ever been working on your car, let me rephrase that, on your back under the car, in the less than best light and see spider webs, but not any webs, THOSE webs...and about 4" from your face.

now, after you are done getting out from underneath the car in a hurry and not smashing your face on anything, there are many options on how to dispose of this nuisance (bug bombs, etc.) but we are short on time, and high on shock and testosterone

having identified those webs, and they happen to belong to the black widow, now this particular one had taken up residence on the underside of the transmission tunnel, right beneath the cowl drain, not the worlds most accesible space.

Let us now move on to how to remove the said unwanted female resident.

First identify the location of the resident, in this case, just behind that drain, now you aren't going to reach up there and smash her




Step 2: selecting the proper tools, in this case, it is the Unwanted Female Resident remover Twelve Thousand.3



Step 3: adjust the sensitivity meter to the desired setting, as not to damage any paint, interior carpeting, or oil puddles...



Step 4: insert probe into small and hard to reach areas, being careful as not to allow any unwated materials to become excessively hot, move the probe around in sweeping motion: making sure to get good coverage...no time for less than 100% coverage in this case



Step 5: just as a reminder, you probably did not exterminate the unwanted traveler, so take time to look around and identify the culprit, in this case now taking up residency under the floor jack



She is approximately the size of a 50 cent piece...i prefer my shoe at this point.

 

that looks like the time consuming, dangerous (yet effective) way to do the job.

I generally just reach for the spray can of brake cleaner.

 

They make a really loud POP! if ya hit them with the torch...

You planting a Buick/Rover V8 in the MGB?

 

i had already nailed her with that about 3 weeks ago...didn't work so well as she was still alive!

(i am giving the B to my sister, so no v8 for her)

 

We should get this moved to the Tech section. This is a great "how-to"!

I wonder how those rats occupying my warehouse would smell after getting hit with oxy/acet??????

 

At 1st I thought you were talking about women! I was about to say..,but then I read on...

I also would have to go with the break spray! Thats crazy and so dangerous, well maybe just for me, I prob would have blown up my car and the spider would of got away! BAD SPIDER... Good job!

 

I thought you were going to get a half lit spider running to the nearest gas can .

 

Blowing cigar smoke or incense in a suitably thick cloud works. She was a big one.

 

"She is approximately the size of a 50 cent piece...i prefer my shoe at this point."


2 words,,,gawwwd-dayyum!
I really like the removal method as well.I had one trapped in the corner of a toolcart the other day,& I was pissing it off with my pen.She was a fighter allright,,,,,,,,,,until Mr Carb spray & Mrs Bic came along.

 

out of curiosity, can black widows be found on there on the right coast, or are they a left coast inhabitant?

 

C'mon now...that CAN'T be the approved PETA way can it? Minus the testosterone, you coulda saved her in something, laid it out as a decoration, and laminated it under some urethane or clear epoxy. Imagine that bitch on the dash of a 57 Chevy post car, huh?

 

Cast inside that new clear resin shiftknob.

 

atleast you would give every other passenger a heart attack! the rest would have to settle for a coronary...

 

Yeah they are over here as well. I've seen a few of them over the years.

Mike

 

Had them in Florida, have them in Georgia (the middle of the state, not just coastal).
I had a similar problem on my '54 Buick. After leafing it parked in "The Field of Dreams" behind work for a while (in Fla), I had to kill several of them before going to work on the car.

On another occasion, while working on the car in the tech shop at about 2am, with the car on the lift and me under it, it started raining baby black widows, as an egg hatched. I broke out the carb cleaner and started spraying. Lots and lots of baby spiders...lots and lots of carb cleaner.
Eventually, it stopped "raining" and I thought "Better make sure they're all dead" and started spraying up in all the nooks and crannies under the car. Got to one spot that was tight and out of the way, and started spraying.
The baby rattle snake that had taken refuge there didn't care for getting hit in the face with carb cleaner, and came sailing out at my face.
That was all a little more excitement than I needed at 2am, so I packed up the shop and drove home.
I caught the snake and released it outside; I dislike mice and rats a whole lot more than snakes.

Oh, carb cleaner and a match is really fun with Florida's big damn flying cockroaches, too.
I don't miss Florida...

-Brad

 

thanks for reminding me as to why i dont live in florida (other than my ex-mother in law lives there...)

 

I don't know if we have them here in New England. I've been cleaning out a bone yard over the last 6 weekends, that has real bones in with the cars. So far the score card for remains found in or under cars is left front quarter and skull of a deer, racoon skull, full racoon skeleton, and the tail and left hind food of a squirrel. Whatever draged that stuff in filled the inside of a Model A Ford cowl section with dirt, while digging a hole, I don't want to meet the thing.

 

I'd rather deal with a rabid Pit Bull than that thing.

 

Found a brown recluse (way worse than the widows) in the handle of one of my toolboxes the other day...almost found it the hard way. Brake cleaner and some choice swear words, and my fingers are safe again. I don't mind spiders, just the hidden, poisonous ones...

 

Once in a while we get them (so I've heard...I've never seen any)...but they're aren't too abundant around here - too cold I guess?

how do you know what thier web looks like? - Just incase I happen to run into one if I ever get a southern car?

 

[quote='51Plymouth]Found a brown recluse (way worse than the widows) in the handle of one of my toolboxes the other day...almost found it the hard way. Brake cleaner and some choice swear words, and my fingers are safe again. I don't mind spiders, just the hidden, poisonous ones...[/quote]

a friend of my father got one of those in his welding jacket, bit him 6 times up and down his back, couldn't figure out why his back kept itching really bad.

he ended up go to his doctor, who told him the only reason he was still alive was that one of the medications happen to be very close to the antidote for brown recluse bites...seriously lucky fucker

 

I hate spiders! UGH!




.

 

they love mufflers! esp. the ones you leave sitting out side for several months while doing something that doesnt require them. we left a set of flows on pipes out side for a while and when we got ready to fire the truck we bolted them up. no big deal eehh. we fired that dude up and raced it a couple times and it shot those bitches, at least 2 per, out with all of their bondaged food supplys! big ole pinching beetles! AAAHHH!!! freaked me out! i hate all spiders! AND THOSE JUMPING WOLF SPIDERS!! aaahhhh!!

 

When you mention PETA I assume you are referring to the,"People for the Ethical Treatment of Arachnidae".I usually have a shop full of spiders of various breeds and they leave me alone as long as I do the same for them.

They do manage to keep the insect population pretty much under control although they don't like ladybugs very much.Probably taste bad.

Watched a really interesting scenario last summer.There was a particularly large spider that lived in the corner next to door #1 in the shop.I usually leave the doors wide open in the summer except when it's really breezy.

I'm near the door when all of a sudden this mud dauber wasp flies into the spider's web and starts struggling.The spider hot foots it out of the corner to subdue the wasp when the wasp starts stinging the spider!

After afew minutes the spider is immobilized and the wasp,with the spider in his jaws,starts beating his wings furiously and eventually breaks free of the web and flies outside to a nearby flower box(courtesy of my wife)and proceeds to EAT the spider!

Never saw anything like it in my life.BTW I dislike wasps and hornets(especially the whitefaced ones)considerably more than spiders.They are much more mobile and usually downright nasty.

Reminds me of when I was about 16 and working on my 33 Hudson coupe out in my grandfather's backyard.There was a hill of dirt that had a nest of yellowjackets inside and after getting stung too many times I decided to get even.

I waited until nightfall and then poured about a gallon of gasoline down into one of the entrances.I stood back and dropped a lit book of matches into the hole.The only smart thing I did was turn my head away because when it ignited it blew the top off the mound of dirt and sent a fireball about 25 feet in the air!

My grandfather(and half the neighborhood)came running out to see what happened and in less than 5 minutes the police and fire department were on the scene.

I got my ass chewed out and couldn't work on the car for nearly a month because of all the pissed off yellowjackets flying around the site of their former home. I HATE YELLOWJACKETS!

 

Now I know why I live in WI. No nasty snakes or bugs!! I will take the cold and snow anyday over having to worrry about dieing from a bug bite while working on my car.

 

I'm terrified of spiders. Good tech.

 

If FL is the right coast, yes... We also have the Brown Recluse spiders, almost as much fun as a BW. With deadly spiders, gators and sharks, it's the trifecta of death no matter where you go here.

 

Great story, reminds me of the one about the Belgium imigrant and the Maico dirt bike that wouldn't start...

Those pictures look like a MG engine compartment for sure. Must be the whitworth threaded Lucas variety of black widow spider. Certainly one of the more confused if not deadly known to man. My favorite remedy is always the can of carb spray and a match. Of course as with any British car this usually works best with a full tank of gas and after the car is moved outside.

 

I helped a friend strip a parts car and while removing the wiring harness from under the dash came face to face with the biggest black widow known to man. Nothing is worse than being on your back, working on a car, as a black widow comes within inches of your face.

I must have set a world record for the "Reverse-Butt-Crawl" not to mention the longest string of expletives as I flew out of that car.